A track-type vehicle, such as a crawler tractor, has a pair of endless tracks mounted on either side thereof to propel the tractor in both a forward and a rearward direction. Each track is normally entrained about an idler and driven by a sprocket wheel rotatably mounted on the tractor. During normal operation in moist soil, the track picks up abrasive foreign material which adheres to the track and decreases the traction of the tractor and accelerates wear of the sprocket wheel and other critical components. A crawler tractor is steered by forced track skewing. This skewing action causes the track to pick up foreign material and carry this material in the track which also causes accelerated wear of critical components. To insure proper operation, foreign material must be removed from the track during operation in both the forward and rearward directions. Any device which breaks up foreign material as the tractor moves in one direction only is insufficient to insure proper operation of the vehicle. This is particularly true since track-type vehicles normally spend a large portion of their time moving in a rearward direction.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.
According to the present invention, a scraping apparatus is provided for a track-type vehicle which has track. The scraping apparatus has a first and second scraping element each having first and second opposed cutting edges. The scraping apparatus removes foreign material from the track during forward and rearward movement of the track.